Packaging machines such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,753,336 receive tubular bag material into which product is delivered. The machine transversely seals and cuts the tubular bag material to form discreet bags.
The above-mentioned tubular bag material is provided by a former. The former receives bag material in strip form and reconfigures it into a tubular configuration.
The size of the tubular bag material is determined by the former. More particularly, bags of a required size are produced with the user of a former designed to produce tubular bag material to suit that particular size bag.
Factories often produce a variety of products, with each of the products frequently being contained in different size bags. Accordingly formers need to be regularly changed to suit different products and different bag sizes.
To prolong the life of some packaged products it is necessary to reduce the amount of oxygen within the bag. This is usually achieved by delivering nitrogen to the former and having the nitrogen contained in the bags. To deliver the nitrogen to the former there is provided a separate gas supply line.
The above-discussed construction of formers suffers a number of disadvantages in that it is difficult and time-consuming to replace the formers and their associated gas lines. During replacement of a former the associated packaging machine is unusable. Accordingly there is a piece of expensive apparatus that is lying idle.